Stunner: NRA Won’t Participate in CNN’s Anti-Gun Obama Infomercial

Can anyone recall a cable news network devoting free airtime time to a Bush initiative? Neither can we, but if you’re so inclined, CNN tonight is running a staged primetime infomercial for anti-gun nut Obama to disseminate his propaganda and, to no surprise, the NRA wants no part of being ambushed.

The nation’s largest gun rights organization declined Wednesday to send official representatives to a nationally televised town hallwith President Barack Obama on gun violence — just days after the president reignited a discussion over this controversial topic.

“The National Rifle Association sees no reason to participate in a public relations spectacle orchestrated by the White House,” NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told CNN, which is moderating the live town hall Thursday evening in Virginia. The NRA strengthened its comment after initially saying the White House had “organized” the event.

The NRA, the most influential gun rights group in terms of political persuasion and financial contributions, boasts a membership of about five million people.

A CNN spokesperson said that it was the network, not the White House, that proposed the idea of a town hall on guns, and noted the audience would be evenly divided between organizations that support the Second Amendment including NRA members as well as groups that back gun regulation.

Sure it will, just like they’ve been fair an non-partisan with these choreographed events in the past, right?

A member of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transexual Americans For Hillary Clinton Steering Committee.

A young woman named “Journey” who questioned the candidates on abortion and whom CNN failed to properly identify as an outspoken John Edwards supporter.

A supposed “Log Cabin Republican” who had declared his support for Obama on an Obama ‘08 campaign blog.

A supposedly unaffiliated “concerned mother” who was actually a staffer and prominent Pittsburgh union activist for the United Steelworkers — which had endorsed Edwards for president.

A supposed “undecided” voter who urged Ron Paul to run as an independent, but who had already publicly declared his support for former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s Democratic presidential bid.

A staffer for Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; a former intern for Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and a former intern for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Yeah, that seems legitimate. Oh, and for an Obama “townhall” event for Obamacare, we we treated to this nonsense:

An operative for the Washington, D.C.-based Health Care for America Now, the K Street Astroturf outfit with a $40 million budget to lobby for government-run health care that directed its activists to “drown out” opponents at town hall meetings.

An “unemployed” cancer patient who was actually working for the DNC’s Organizing for America and the Virginia Organizing Project, which coordinated lobbying trips and health care forums with HCAN.

A Democrat National Committee member and community blogger at Organizing for America.

The 11-year-old daughter of a coordinator of Massachusetts Women for Obama who had donated thousands of dollars to the campaign, as had her law firm employer.

But sure, we should trust them now, just like we should believe this dog-and-pon show was their idea.

President Obama these days is all about guns. Yesterday he held a teary news conference to champion a measure to expand background checks for gun buyers. “We know we can’t stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world. But maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence,” said the president, who was surrounded by gun-control advocates and victims of gun violence. There’s more to come, too: Tomorrow night, CNN’s Anderson Cooper will host a town hall meeting with Obama at George Mason University.

From the outside, that looks awfully convenient for the White House: A nationally televised program on a topic central to the president’s legacy agenda. Just whose idea was this, anyway?

CNN is saying it was theirs. “A CNN spokesperson said that it was the network, not the White House, that proposed the idea of a town hall on guns,”notes a CNN article on the matter. Yesterday, the Erik Wemple Blog asked CNN about it and was awaiting a response when the CNN article surfaced. A representative for George Mason University yesterday told the Erik Wemple Blog that the space for the town hall meeting is rented to CNN, which accordingly retains control over the invitations. The CNN rep told CNN that “the audience would be evenly divided between organizations that support the Second Amendment including NRA members as well as groups that back gun regulation.”